Lululemon’s Luon Black Yoga Pants Return (but has my spirit?)

OK, that probably sounds a touch more dramatic than necessary.

But once upon a time, I was the anti-thesis of fitness-interested.

(That vaguely sort of rhymes, right?)

Not really.

Anyway, another thing that didn’t rhyme was my muscles. Or, the flab sitting on top of them, waiting on the next cheeseburger. Post six-months-of-life-in-peril I actually started to do a lot better – was working out 3X-4X a week, said bye-bye to refined sugars and flours. And I owed it all to a close friend who had become my fitness mentor and led me through every step of the way. She personally tutored me in yoga and Pilates I could do as soon as 2 weeks post-op and I truly believe made it possible for me to regain my strength in pretty record time.

Except life happens. And what was sort of like a sisterhood fell apart…and, I’m ashamed to say, the amazing gift she had given me reminded me of our lost friendship and I stopped working out altogether. For months.

It’s sad how that goes down. How seemingly disconnected events can have such domino effects on our reality. But I found myself a few months later (and, to be honest, a half-dozen over-indulgent trips later) having regained much of the 20 pounds she had helped me to lose this past summer.

It’s been slow-moving…when you work out regularly, your body sort of starts to CRAVE it. If you go to yoga 4X a week and suddenly miss a few days, your body feels like it’s going through withdrawal. But if you haven’t gone in a month? Suddenly the biggest battle is just getting yourself there — and there are a million excuses. I’ve been trying to shake it up, though — to do ANYTHING that involves being something other than sedentary — finding fun, silly classes with friends. I live for Zumba — and somehow had let that go this winter as well — but in the last few weeks, have gone to a few classes a week of that, and non-associated off-shoots like Caribbean Rhythms and Turning Tricks dance classes.

I haven’t been back to yoga or Pilates yet though — been a good month since my last yoga class (and even then, I’d been going maybe once every 10 days since Christmas) — and it’s odd how the class I was most into just a few short months ago now feels the most intimidating. Almost like that is where I’d most easily see my decline.

I’m being self-defacing, I know. And it’s embarrassing to admit how disappointed I am right here, but maybe it’ll help me work through it and get to a class tonight. I see my incredible friends constantly doing amazing things — my friend Dina broke her wrist just a few weeks ago and is already back at FlyWheel! — and I realize I’m just making excuses to be miserable, sabotaging myself over and again.

But maybe I just found extra motivation, because I read this morning Lululemon has announced the return of its luon black yoga pants. It has been about two and a half months since the company announced an expected shortage in the pants after they were pulled for being too sheer. Bloombergreports that Lululemon increased the quality testing of the yoga pants. Lululemon says in a long FAQ that it puts the fabric in the pants through 15 different tests:

We put the fabric through a total of 15 tests addressing specific components of the fabric. Some examples of the areas we test include pilling, shrinkage, colorfastness, abrasion, and burst strength. We also test modulus – which is the force with which the fabric wants to go back after it has been stretched, and extension – which is the maximum amount a fabric will stretch when pressure is applied.

So, Lululemon’s yoga pants (and my ass) went on a semi-hiatus of sorts at the same time. And now we’re back in the saddle? At least Lululemon is.

Fun tidbit: Check out this Lululemon blog post saying they developed a sheer-o-meter which “measures the amount of light coming through the fabric while being stretched at varying degrees.” I think every single girl in Hoboken should invest in one immediately. But, that’s for another day!